FlySacto
Ale User
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2002
- Posts
- 345
Not true, Columbia was not equipped to dock at the station. It was the only shuttle not set up with a docking port. Nasa also declined the airforce's offer to view the shuttles belly form orbit with a high powered telescope which would have revealed the damage to the leading edge of the left wing. Columbia was not in the right orbit and did not have enough fuel to reach the station.
You are correct but I'd take an "educated guess" that the idea of burning fuel in an "asset" to photograph the shuttle was eventually discounted as being a moot point as there were NO other option but deorbit. There were no other fixes or band-aides they could have used. There are a few guys here who have known me since way back when I worked as a part time flight instructor during the day, and full time at night in a "class A" facility as a civilian contractor that steered X-band radar around the sky 24/7. What we might have known never did, or could have ever known, mattered in this situation.